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http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/hiroshima.htm
"The hour was early; the morning still, warm, and beautiful. Shimmering leaves, reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made a pleasant contrast with shadows in my garden as I gazed absently through wide-flung doors opening to the south.
Clad in drawers and undershirt, I was sprawled on the living room floor exhausted because I had just spent a sleepless night on duty as an air warden in my hospital.
Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me - and then another. So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from a passing trolley.
Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before had been so bright and sunny was now dark and hazy. Through swirling dust I could barely discern a wooden column that had supported one comer of my house. It was leaning crazily and the roof sagged dangerously.
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Moving instinctively, I tried to escape, but rubble and fallen timbers barred the way. By picking my way cautiously I managed to reach the roka [an outside hallway] and stepped down into my garden. A profound weakness overcame me, so I stopped to regain my strength. To my surprise I discovered that I was completely naked How odd! Where were my drawers and undershirt?
What had happened?
All over the right side of my body I was cut and bleeding. A large splinter was protruding from a mangled wound in my thigh, and something warm trickled into my mouth. My check was torn, I discovered as I felt it gingerly, with the lower lip laid wide open. Embedded in my neck was a sizable fragment of glass which I matter-of-factly dislodged, and with the detachment of one stunned and shocked I studied it and my blood-stained hand.
Where was my wife?
Suddenly thoroughly alarmed, I began to yell for her: 'Yaeko-san! Yaeko-san! Where are you?' Blood began to spurt. Had my carotid artery been cut? Would I bleed to death? Frightened and irrational, I called out again 'It's a five-hundred-ton bomb! Yaeko-san, where are you? A five- hundred-ton bomb has fallen!'
Yaeko-san, pale and frightened, her clothes torn and blood stained, emerged from the ruins of our house holding her elbow. Seeing her, I was reassured. My own panic assuaged, I tried to reassure her.
'We'll be all right,' I exclaimed. 'Only let's get out of here as fast as we can.'
She nodded, and I motioned for her to follow me."

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Truman announcing his plan to drop the bomb

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Truman announcing his plan to drop the bomb

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President Harry Truman announces the Bombing of Hiroshima

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"Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare."

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Atomic Bomb-Truman Press Release-August 6, 1945

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Harry Truman in 1945 "regarded the [atomic] bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubt it should be used." In a 1958 handwritten document on the rise of the atomic age, he later stated, "Now we are faced with total destruction.

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A week after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered.  World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history, with between 50 and 85 million fatalities, was finally over.

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Aerial view of Hiroshima depicts the terrific destructive force of the atomic bomb
United States Army Air Corps; Harry S. Truman Library & Museum

By August, 1945, Japan had lost World War II. Japan and the United States both knew it. How long would it be, however, before Japan surrendered? Japan was split between surrender or fighting to the end. They chose to fight.

In mid-July, President Harry S Truman was notified of the successful test of the atomic bomb, what he called "the most terrible bomb in the history of the world." Thousands of hours of research and development as well as billions of dollars had contributed to its production. This was no theoretical research project. It was created to destroy and kill on a massive scale. As president, it was Harry Truman's decision if the weapon would be used with the goal to end the war. "It is an awful responsibility that has come to us," the president wrote.

President Truman had four options: 1) continue conventional bombing of Japanese cities; 2) invade Japan; 3) demonstrate the bomb on an unpopulated island; or, 4) drop the bomb on an inhabited Japanese city.

While the United States began conventional bombing of Japan as early as 1942, the mission did not begin in earnest until mid-1944. Between April 1944 and August, 1945, an estimated 333,000 Japanese people were killed and 473,000 more wounded in air raids. A single firebombing attack on Tokyo in March 1945 killed more than 80,000 people. Truman later remarked, "Despite their heavy losses at Okinawa and the firebombing of Tokyo, the Japanese refused to surrender. The saturation bombing of Japan took much fiercer tolls and wrought far and away more havoc than the atomic bomb. Far and away. The firebombing of Tokyo was one of the most terrible things that ever happened, and they didn't surrender after that although Tokyo was almost completely destroyed."

In August 1945, it was clear that conventional bombing was not effective.

The United States could launch a traditional ground invasion of the Japanese home islands. However, experience showed that the Japanese did not easily surrender. They had been willing to make great sacrifices to defend the smallest islands. They were likely to fight even more fiercely if the United States invaded their homeland. During the battle at Iwo Jima in 1945, 6,200 US soldiers died. Later that year, on Okinawa, 13,000 soldiers and sailors were killed. Casualties on Okinawa were 35 percent; one out of three US participants was wounded or killed. Truman was afraid that an invasion of Japan would look like "Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other." Casualty predictions varied, but all were high. The price of invasion would be millions of American dead and wounded.

Estimates did not include Japanese casualties. Truman and his military advisers assumed that a ground invasion would "be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population." Documents discovered after the war indicated that they were right. Despite knowing the cause was hopeless, Japan planned a resistance so ferocious, resulting in costs so appalling, that they hoped that the United States would simply call for a cease fire where each nation would agree to stop fighting and each nation would retain the territory they occupied at the time. Almost one-quarter million Japanese casualties were expected in the invasion. Truman wrote, "My object is to save as many American lives as possible but I also have a human feeling for the women and children of Japan."

In August 1945, it appeared inevitable that Japanese civilians would have to suffer more death and casualties before surrender. A ground invasion would result in excessive American casualties as well.

Another option was to demonstrate the power of atomic bomb to frighten the Japanese into surrendering. An island target was considered, but it raised several concerns. First, who would Japan select to evaluate the demonstration and advise the government? A single scientist? A committee of politicians? How much time would elapse before Japan communicated its decision-and how would that time be used? To prepare for more fighting? Would a nation surrender based on the opinion of a single person or small group? Second, what if the bomb turned out to be a dud? This was a new weapon, not clearly understood. The world would be watching the demonstration of a new weapon so frightening that an enemy would surrender without a fight. What if this "super weapon" didn't work? Would that encourage Japan to fight harder? Third, there were only two bombs in existence at the time. More were in production, but, dud or not, was it worth it to expend 50% of the country's atomic arsenal in a demonstration?

In May 1945, Truman had formed the Interim Committee, a committee to advise the president about matters pertaining to the use of nuclear energy and weapons. The Committee's first priority was to advise on the use of the atomic bomb. After prolonged debate, the president received the Committee's historic conclusion: "We can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war. We can see no acceptable alternative to direct military use."

Truman and his advisors concluded that only bombing a city would make an adequate impression. Any advance warning to evacuate a city would endanger the bomber crews; the Japanese would be forewarned and attempt to shoot them down. The target cities were carefully chosen. First, it had to be a city that had suffered little damage from conventional bombing so it couldn't be argued that the damage came from anything other than the atomic bomb. Second, it must be a city primarily devoted to military production. This was complicated, however, because in Japan, workers homes were intermingled with factories so that it was impossible to find a target that was exclusively military. Finally, Truman stipulated it should not be a city of traditional cultural significance to Japan, such as Kyoto. Truman did not seek to destroy Japanese culture or people; the goal was to destroy Japan's ability to make war.

So, on the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the world's first atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima.

The temperature near the blast site reached 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky seemed to explode. Birds ignited in midair; asphalt boiled. People over two miles away burst into crumbling cinders. Others with raw skin hanging in flaps around their hips leaped shrieking into waterways to escape the heat. Men without feet stumbled about on the charred stumps of their ankles. Women without jaws screamed incoherently for help. Bodies described as "boiled octopuses" littered the destroyed streets. Children, tongues swollen with thirst, pushed floating corpses aside to soothe their scalded throats with bloody river water.

One eyewitness at Hiroshima recalled, "I climbed Hikiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared.... I was shocked by the sight.... Of course I saw many dreadful scenes after that - but that experience, looking down and finding nothing left of Hiroshima - was so shocking that I simply can't express what I felt.... Hiroshima didn't exist - that was mainly what I saw - Hiroshima just didn't exist."

Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the atomic fallout.

The President released a press release, which read in part, "Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness to the enemy. .... If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth."

A 21-year-old American second lieutenant recalled, "When the bombs dropped and news began to circulate that [the invasion of Japan] would not, after all, take place, that we would not be obliged to run up the beaches near Tokyo assault-firing while being mortared and shelled, for all the fake manliness of our facades we cried with relief and joy. We were going to live. We were going to grow up to adulthood after all."

One week later, on August 14, 1945, after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered. World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history, with between 50 and 85 million fatalities, was finally over.

At the time, the president seemed conflicted over his decision. The day after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, Truman received a telegram from Senator Richard B. Russell of Georgia, encouraging the president to use as many atomic bombs as possible on Japan, claiming the American people believed "that we should continue to strike the Japanese until they are brought groveling to their knees." Truman responded, "I know that Japan is a terribly cruel and uncivilized nation in warfare but I can't bring myself to believe that because they are beasts, we should ourselves act in that same manner. For myself I certainly regret the necessity of wiping out whole populations because of the 'pigheadedness' of the leaders of a nation, and, for your information, I am not going to do it unless absolutely necessary."

On August 9, the day the Nagasaki bomb was dropped, Truman received a telegram from Samuel McCrea Cavert, a Protestant clergyman, who pleaded with the president to stop the bombing "before any further devastation by atomic bomb is visited upon her [Japan's] people." Two days later, Truman replied, "The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast."

Looking back, President Truman never shirked personal responsibility for his decision, but neither did he apologize. He asserted that he would not use the bomb in later conflicts, such as Korea. Nevertheless, given the same circumstances and choices that confronted him in Japan in 1945, he said he would do exactly the same thing.

It was heavy burden to bear. Speaking of himself as president, Truman said, "And he alone, in all the world, must say Yes or No to that awesome, ultimate question, 'Shall we drop the bomb on a living target?'" Every president since Harry Truman has had that power. None has exercised it.

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Harry Truman's Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb (U.S. National Park Service)

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By August, 1945, Japan had lost World War II. Japan and the United States both knew it. How long would it be, however, before Japan surrendered? Japan was split between surrender or fighting to the end. They chose to fight.

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Michael Pumiglia
In Hiroshima the air raid sirens had sounded twice that morning already. On both occasions the all clear followed swiftly. Enola Gay faced no resistance as it dropped the bomb. Forty five seconds later the city was destroyed in a blinding instant. Eighty thousand men, women and children were killed and tens of thousands wounded, disfigured and poisoned by radiation from the bomb.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zq7yg82

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"August 4, 2015- A few months after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Dwight D. Eisenhower commented during a social occasion “how he had hoped that the war might have ended without our having to use the atomic bomb.” This virtually unknown evidence from the diary of Robert P. Meiklejohn, an assistant to Ambassador W. Averell Harriman, published for the first time today by the National Security Archive, confirms that the future President Eisenhower had early misgivings about the first use of atomic weapons by the United States. General George C. Marshall is the only high-level official whose contemporaneous (pre-Hiroshima) doubts about using the weapons against cities are on record."
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb525-The-Atomic-Bomb-and-the-End-of-World-War-II/

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Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender

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Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender

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Michael Pumiglia
"The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason."

http://www.ndl.go.jp/constitution/e/etc/c06.html

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During War

Opinion polls taken immediately after the war found overwhelming support for America’s decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In August of 1945, 85 percent of Americans supported the decision to use atomic bombs on Japanese cities, compared to just 10 percent who said they opposed it.

Millennials

In a different poll taken around the same time, 23 percent of respondents said they wished the United States had dropped more atomic bombs on Japan before Tokyo had a chance to surrender. That was more people than opposed the decision to use the bomb.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/us-millenials-say-america-was-wrong-drop-atomic-bombs-japan-13409

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Michael Pumiglia
"Even after the flames had subsided, relief from the outside was slow in coming.  For hours after the attack the Japanese government did not even know for sure what had happened.  Radio and telegraph communications with Hiroshima had suddenly ended at 8:16 a.m., and vague reports of some sort of large explosion had begun to filter in, but the Japanese high command knew that no large-scale air raid had taken place over the city and that there were no large stores of explosives there.  Eventually a Japanese staff officer was dispatched by plane to survey the city from overhead, and while he was still nearly 100 miles away from the city he began to report on a huge cloud of smoke that hung over it"

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/hiroshima.htm